It’s a question that so many songwriters that are just starting out will ask themselves: “Should I sell my music or give it away for free?”

You may be thinking, why would you give it away?!  If you want to make music your career, then you need to make music make you money!  True.  That is certainly the long-term goal of many songwriters.  But is charging a buck per song from the very beginning always the best way to acheive this goal?

When you’re on your very first EP or demo release, and you’re an unknown fish in a sea of gigging artists and bands, your goal might have a bit of a twist:  Get your music heard and appreciated by as many people as possible.  Maybe charging for your music is not the fastest way to acheive this goal.

But what about all of the hard work you put into writing, recording, and performing your music?  Do you not deserve to be compensated for this effort?  I say you absolutely do.  But the harsh reality is that only a lucky few ever reach a level of success that brings in real money from selling your music.  Furthermore, this is the wrong thing to be focusing on.

Focus on your passion.  It’s the reason you create music in the first place.  It’s the reason your music is good.  It’s the reason your music is appreciated.  I say set your music free by spreading it to as many mp3 sharing listeners as possible.  If your songs touch people’s souls, and you work hard to grow your fanbase and churn out more music, monetary success will come.

There other ways to keep your musical career afloat financially while you work to advance your career.  Drawing crowds at your live shows will earn you some cash.  Touring outside of your local scene has the potential to pay even better (although touring does have many expenses to consider).  Selling merchandise at shows and through your website is another way to monetize your musical endeavor.  But these methods will earn you nothing unless you have a growing fan base that is hungry for your goods.

Give the people what they want.  Free music that they can share with their friends.

Consider option 1: A first-time visitor to your website or Myspace page is absolutely floored by the streaming audio preview of your song.  They want the mp3 for their ipod, but it requires purchasing with a credit card.  Sure it’s cheap, but it requires getting out the plastic, typing in the credit card number, expiration, blah blah blah… “oh forget it, I’ll do this later” they think to themselves.  They forget to do it later.  You lost a potential fan.

Consider option 2: A first-time visitor adores your music and clicks to download the free mp3.  They throw it on their ipod, jam to it in their car, and play plugs your name or band to their friend.  The friend checks you out on the web and is not quite as sold on your sound as the first person was, but takes the trusted recommendation for what it’s worth and downloads the mp3 anyway.  After a week of listening they’re converted.  And they email your web link to a 3rd friend…

What do you think?  Is music for free the only option for budding artists in today’s music industry?

This is a guest post from Cliff Goldmacher, a songwriter/producer with recording studios in both New York City and Nashville. Along with teaching workshops for songwriters around the country, he’s a regular contributor to EQ Magazine.  For more about Cliff, visit www.cliffgoldmacher.com

As a result of recording and producing literally hundreds of demos, I’ve learned that it is always better to “Prepare and Prevent” than to “Repair and Repent.” Here are a few steps you can take to help make your demo recording experience more successful.

Song Preparation:

It may sound obvious but make sure your song is FINISHED. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had clients come into the studio only to start rewriting a part of the lyric or melody. It is significantly less stressful (and quite a bit less expensive) to write a song when you’re not paying the studio an hourly fee.

You can also benefit from trying a few rough recordings at home before you get to the studio. The simple act of listening back to a song instead of performing it will reveal any weaknesses or issues that need to be dealt with before the studio clock is running. The last of these rough home recordings will become the definitive work tape.

The Rough Recording:

This is any simple, inexpensive recording that you do on a hand-held tape recorder, mini disc player, mp3 recorder, etc. Generally a piano or guitar plus a scratch vocal will do the trick. The key here is not a perfect recording but rather an accurate representation of the song structure. In other words, it doesn’t have to sound great as long as the chords, melody and lyrics are correct. The purpose of this work tape is to provide the demo vocalist and session musicians with a final version of your song that they can learn from.

The Players:

Let’s start with the demo vocalist. It’s always a good policy to get a copy of the work tape and the lyrics to the singer a week or so before the session. There are several reasons for this. First of all, the singer can let you know what key the song should be in to best suit their voice. This way, if you end up recording instrument parts before the singer does their part, you’ll know the correct key. Secondly, the more time the singer has to learn the song, the less time he or she will take to sing the song when the studio clock is running.

When you get to the session, it’s wise to have printed lyric sheets for the engineer, musicians and vocalist. The lyrics should be typewritten and have each chorus written out in full. The reason for this is that you’ll be using these lyric sheets to mark spots that need fixing (or spots on certain takes that you like) and having “Repeat Chorus” written for the second and third choruses won’t allow you to take good notes. The better the notes you take on the lyric sheet while the vocalist is recording, the easier it will be to tell the vocalist what works and what needs to be fixed.

The session musicians do not need a work tape in advance. They will be learning the song from your work tape when they get to the session. You can save a little time by writing a chord chart of the song if it’s something you’re comfortable doing. If not, the session musicians should have no trouble doing it for you quickly using the work tape you bring to the session.

After that, it’s up to the singers and musicians to bring your song to the next level. There’s nothing more fun than listening to world-class musicians and vocalists record a song you’ve written. The more you prepare in advance, the more you’ll enjoy your studio experience.

Cliff Goldmacher is a songwriter, producer, engineer and the owner of recording studios in both Nashville and New York City. Cliff is also a regular contributor to EQ Magazine and Pro Sound News.

Cliff Goldmacher
Website: www.cliffgoldmacher.com
Email: cliff@cliffgoldmacher.com
Phone: 615.320.7233
Biography

In a previous post, I talked in length about how the music industry is changing simultaneously with the explosion of the blogosphere. One thing to take away from this is that releases that are shorter in length are much more common today. Less songs, shorter songs, but new releases are much more frequent.

Music production quality, especially out of home recording studios, has improved tremendously in the past decade. We’re now seeing independent artists producing some great sounding tracks straight out of their basement budget recording studio. Songs that would be demos sound good enough to use on the album!

Here’s a breakdown of the common names for music releases. This should help you figure out which format best fits your style and current situation.

Demo

A demo really doesn’t have any specific length or number of songs, however it’s most commonly shorter than an EP or an album. The very first thing bands cut is usually a demo consisting of three to four songs. This is used to put a sound to the name, populate the Myspace page with something, and send out to clubs to book shows.

You’re probably not so concerned with getting your demo in the hands of thousands of fans because this is really just the first draft of your sound. Additionally, many music consumers are not very excited about paying money for something that’s called a “demo” or even taking the time to listen to it more than once.

It might be a good idea to hand out some demos for free while you’re band is developing, or you’re in the studio recording your first “real release”.

Demo recordings might also be used for more experienced bands and songwriters as more of an internal production process. You record a full song with some arrangement as a test run for when you record it for the record. This is good to listen to for a couple weeks to get a feel for how you want to perfect it on the real thing.

EP

The EP, or Extended Play, has been around for quite a while, although it seems to have been making a resurgence in recent years. Here’s some more information about it.

EPs tend to have 10 to 30 minutes of material and consist of roughly five or six songs.  This is kind of the middle ground between a demo and a full-length album.

EPs can be used in a variety of situations.  Perhaps it’s the first official release that you’re promoting to your audience to generate a buzz and introduce your sound.  You may not have enough material to fill a full-length album yet.

Another idea is to release several EPs in a short period of time to create a steady stream of musical output.  I personally think this idea is really gaining traction in recent years.  In fact, I chose to use this method of releasing my songs at my personal blog (sorry for the shameless plug!).

Another great use for an EP is a bonus release that follows a full-length album or accompanies a DVD.  Many bands release a shorter EP containing b-side recordings from the album.  Others release it as an exclusive set of never heard before songs or versions of existing songs.  There lots of interesting options when working with the EP format.

Album

An album, or otherwise known as LP (long-play), is 30 to 80 minutes of material, usually consisting of ten to twelve songs.

While the sliding record industry is certainly having an effect on the overall quality and substance of albums, they are still the centerpiece of the discography of many bands and artists.

Albums are the way we reference historic moments in rock history.  Albums define the phase of an artist’s career and provide a point of comparison to early and later developments in their sound.

For many emerging bands and artists, it can be difficult to commit the time and the funds needed to produce a full-length album when the success of that album may or may not come.  It takes a huge amount of promotion efforts along with some luck to fully recoup the cost of making the album (and this goes for self-produced independent bands too).  This is one reason why EPs are a more popular method for recording and releasing music while continuing to gig and progress as a band.

These ideas should help you decide on the best format for your music at any given point in your songwriting career.  I’d love to hear your ideas and experiences in this aspect of the song game.